EuCAN visit to the Picos de Europa
June 2011
13th June
A smooth start to the journey saw us arriving in Selsted just in time to pitch camp before heading to Canterbury for our appointment with not only a 2-for-1 offer at Pizza Express but also the penultimate member of the group. After some discussion, we decided over dinner that the bird list for the trip proper shouldn't start until the next day, despite our having seen a red kite over the M3.
Our evening stroll around Canterbury afforded us glorious views of the cathedral – or at least of the tip of the tower. If we jumped. Quite high.
14th June
A smooth channel crossing, bereft of hoped-for shearwaters, preceded a longer than expected drive to La Brenne, where we were greeted by hundreds of House Martins in the streets of Méobecq and a very obliging pair of Hoopoes just outside our final destination, Rosnay, where we pitched camp in the fading light to the accompanying sounds of a veritable frog chorus.
15th June
Tony Williams of the LPO very kindly took time out of his busy schedule to take us on a tour of sites where previous EuCAN parties had worked over the years, particularly the wet grassland near Étang Purais where several years of EuCAN scrub bashing have made ideal habitat for the Alcon Blue and its foodplant Marsh Gentian. He also took is in search of the very rare Woodland Brown, and while we didn't see it we did see hosts of fritillaries (Marbled, Marsh, and Silver-Washed) on the brambles and White Admiral in the canopy. We also saw the new hides at Étang Purais and Étang de la Sous, which offer amazing views of the nesting Whiskered Terns and Black-necked Grebes.
Stopping off to see a Bee Eater colony near Scoury put us a little behind schedule for leaving the Brenne, which wasn't helped by my spotting a Great White Egret from the road, which turned out to be accompanied by not only a Purple Heron but also a Night Heron.
Passing through Bordeaux at dusk we lost our way slightly and became stuck in what must be the longest and most closely spaced series of traffic lights in France, if not Europe. As a result we arrived at Mios as darkness fell.
16th June
A brief morning visit to the Parc Ornithologique at La Teich offered us excellent views of nesting White Storks, although we had to leave soon after when it transpired the Parc wasn't actually supposed to be open and we had inadvertently snuck in without paying. Our onward journey through the pine plantations of south-west France treated us to the biggest woodpile any of us had ever seen which seemed to stretch for miles alongside the autoroute.
On entering Spain we lunched at what one member of the party declared to be the least salubrious picnic spot in the whole of Spain (and he should know). Mile upon mile of eucalyptus plantations lined our route along the coast. A brief stop at a secluded looking beach gave us a paddle in the sea and our first of many views of Griffon Vultures.
After the first of many winding drives along the A116 we arrived at the FCQ visitor centre in Benia just half an hour late, and were given a warm greeting by our host Diego Cortez. A brief tour of our accommodation in Llueves (literally “The Rains”) by his colleague Jose was followed by tapas at a sidraria in Cangas de Onis, and our first of many experiences of the unusual and dramatic local cider-pouring ritual.
17th June
Our morning tour of the exhibition in the FCQ visitor centre took in a bone-shaking audio-visual representation of the formation of the Picos, some very, very realistic fake Lammergeiers and film of some of the local shepherds and the few people still alive who could remember seeing them wild in the Picos. We all agreed the exhibition was extremely well designed, tying the reintroduction of the Quebrantahuesos in to the conservation of the whole pastoral landscape, and telling the story of how what had once been a thriving community of over 1000 semi-nomadic shepherds a century ago had dwindled to just five families.
In the afternoon we began work prepring parts for the bridge we were to build to help the local shepherds graze a previously inaccessible slope, a job seemingly beset by problems from beginning to end. We drilled holes in the supposedly pre-drilled girders unitl 8pm, just as the only drill bit finally wore out through over-use...
18th June
A wonderful day spent exploring the Picos with Diego as our guide. We tried to track Deva, last year's surviving tagged bird, but were unable to get a signal. We were, however, able to see Egyptian Vultures, Short-Toed Eagles, Golden Eagles, and Griffon Vulture nests as well as a host of wild flowers unfamiliar to the botanists in the party.
After a late dinner and siesta, we drove out to a Flamenco concert in a nearby(ish) village which was a wonderful end to the evening (or technically, beginning to the next morning).
19th June
A morning spent emptying the moth trap and visiting Cangas market with its rich variety of local produce was follwed by an afternoon with Georges Verhulst, author of the authoritative book on butterflies of the Picos, who finally showed us the elusive Woodland Brown. The intense heat of the afternoon was broken (by some of us) on the way home with a “refreshing” river swim.
The evening brought the Fiesta of San Antonio to Cangas with a Eurovision-style musical extravaganza in the town square and fireworks on the famous Roman bridge, which we had a fine view of from the hill behind our accommodation in Llueves.
20th June
The first day of bridge-building saw us dragging steel girders down a mountainside in the company of Diego, Jose, and some workers from the local council. What seemed like an impossible task turned out not to be as hard as it had at first appeared, but was still very hard work indeed!
21st June
More beam dragging, aided by the seemingly super-human Marro, and the slightly surreal task of carrying wood two hours into the forest, and we were finally ready to construct the bridge. Our task completed far more quickly than we had anticipated, we walked out along the river valley past ancient Sweet Chestnut groves where we came across a mating pair of Poplar Hawkmoths and saw Bilberry and Heather growing as epiphytes on the gnarled veteran trees.
22nd June
A well-earned lie-in before a visit to the historic basilica of Cavadonga, where a number of the party drank from a spring guarranteed to bring the drinker matrimony within the year. On what was supposed to be a day off from wildlife, we still managed to notch up Grasshopper Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, and Middle-Spotted Woodpecker.
23rd June
Our first overcast day! In the morning we began constructing the Hacking structures, cages designed to habituate the birds to the locale in the weeks preceding their release, after which we visited Belbin, one of the few remaining summer villages, or mahadas, still inhabited and used for cheese-making. Here we had the surreal experience of stepping into an ancient dry-stone walled shepherd's hut only to find a high-tech stainless steel dairy which had been built with EU money to comply with EU regulations and made inferior cheese to the traditional, more sustainable wooden equipment.
24th June
The sun came out again for our second day of work on the hacking structures. We made short work of finishing the cages, and were able to go for a long walk past Belbin and around the famous lakes, where we caught our first sight of flocks of... tourists!
25th June
For those of us who felt dragging steel girders down mountainsides wasn't hard enough work, our hosts had a treat in store – shearing 450 sheep at the top of a mountain under the blazing sun. A real community event, we helped several generations of the same family and their friends work solidly until late afternoon, when an enormous barbeque “lunch” of succulent lamb was prepared. Much sidra and ozumo (the local liquer) later, we walked down the mountain in the astonishing evening heat, marvelling at the saxifrages and sedums along the way and stopping to refresh ourselves at a drinking trough full of alpine newts.
26th June
A second day of shearing and another wonderful lunch, this time courtesy of Rafa's wife Fatima and her delicious tortillas, served on a plank of wood in a barn full of sheep. We worked until 8pm again, which meant those of us who were wtill awake had dinner in true Spanish style at past midnight.
27th June
A late start after a very late night found us at the FCQ centre rather later in the morning than we intended, where we met an excited Diego who animatedly informed us that Deva's faulty GPS tag had at last broadcast her position. We rushed out to track her, and found a signal at the mouth of the Cares gorge. Unfortunately, by the time we had driven into the gorge itself there was no signal to be found. The sweltering heat in the gorge was too much for us – even Diego – and we soon gave up the chase, only to find a very weak signal outside the gorge, way to the north, indicating she'd flown over our heads while we we driving.
An afternoon at the beach was very welcome.
28th June
Our last full day in the Picos, and our first day of true Picos weather. Rain, drizzle, mist, low cloud, fog, rain, and more rain. The weather was just too bad to walk the Cares gorge as we'd planned, so most of the day was free time. In the afternoon we visited Posada del Valla, Nigel Birch's hotel and organic smallholding near Ariondas. Nigel gave us a very inspiring tour of his land, including an orchard beset by moles and hay meadows with over 300 species of flowering plants.
Our last evening in Llueves was the occasion for an end of trip barbecue and knees-up, memorable for much expert (and inexpert) sidra-pouring, Jose's winning way with fire, and Julian's early-morning reggae dancing.
29th June
We were all up surprisingly bright and early for our presentation on EuCAN to FCQ staff and an invited audience of local mountain guides. I gave a summary of the project to date after which David and Poppy gave very interesting accounts of their work in Hungary.
One last attempt to track Deva drew a blank, but did provide us with breathtaking views of Black Kite and a perching Short-Toed Eagle.
We left the Picos ever so slightly disappointed not to have seen an actual Lammergeier, but we couldn't possibly complain about the wealth of bird, plant, and sheep life we had seen.
30th June
The Santander-Plymouth ferry is famous for whale-watching, but we were all so tired from our labours (our possibly the previous night's celebrations) that we slept solidly from one side of the Bay of Biscay to the other, dreaming of the quebrantahuesos.
Steve Bennett July 2011